There is not a single player who can boast that he left at the peak of his abilities. That’s not a given for athletes. They get old fast. Some earlier, some later. There’s no escaping it, not for them, not for us, who are so used to seeing familiar, flashing faces on the screen. But not everyone understands this. Not everyone accepts it. Cristiano Ronaldo has not. And, I will not hide it, at first it seemed that the Portuguese successfully prolonged his soccer life, but as the Portuguese prolonged it, he buried it. The end of his career.
Cristiano is a great footballer, no question about it. However, the character of Ronaldo … Let’s face it, everyone knew about Ronaldo’s narcissism for a long time. Some were cool about it, some were angry about it, but it did not play a big role – the game overshadowed if not everything, then a lot. But now, now that Cristiano has begun to age, exorbitant ambition is a problem. There’s no way to disguise it.
You could not start the saga in the summer and go into the preseason quietly so you don’t have to roll into the season for a month or so? You could accept the fact that old age is coming and accept your new role on the team? Was it possible to show respect for the team and the coaching staff and not leave games before they were over ? It was possible. But this is Cristiano Ronaldo.
And so near the end of the penultimate month of the fall, the Portuguese, instead of any playing minutes, comes to individual training and the status of a player whose sale would be a blessing for all of Manchester. Bravo. To ruin the end of his career like that … And that at 37 years old!
On May 21, 2008, Russia hosted its first Champions League final. The country was so looking forward to the guests that it allowed English fans to enter the country without a visa. Only with a passport and a ticket to the game. “Luzhniki” by the end was filled completely to see the Champions League trophy in the hands of young Cristiano Ronaldo after a dramatic penalty shootout. In a couple of months the Portuguese would claim his first Ballon d’Or and would go on to become a club legend by the time he moved to Madrid.
Who knew, who knew then …